WEDGE-TAILED GREEN PIGEON 81 
In a great many males, which appear to be fully adult birds, the maroon 
on the back and interscapulars is very slight in extent, and it is always paler 
there than on the shoulders of the wing. 
Colours of soft parts. “Legs, feet and claws, crimson pink; bill dull 
smalt blue; horny portion pale skim milk blue; orbital skin smalt blue ; 
irides with an inner ring of pale bright blue and an outer ring of buffy pink ” 
(Davison). 
I have known the colours of the feet to vary from coral-red, with only 
a faint tinge of crimson, to an almost pure deep crimson ; the soles are almost 
invariably paler and the claws are horny, or horny-brown, in exceptional 
cases only suffused with pink. The bill has the cere and the terminal portion 
dull smalt-blue, the central hard portion duller and paler, and, in a few 
specimens, there is a very faint tinge of green here. The orbital skin is pale 
lavender or smalt-blue. The irides have two rings, the inner bright pale 
ultramarine, the outer ranging from a buffy-pink to a very bright crimson- 
pink, the colour being brightest and most intense in old birds. 
Measurements. Total length in life about 13 in. Length of wing from 
6.8 in. to 7.3 ( = 172.7 to 185.4 mm.) ; tail from 4.5 in. to 5.5 ( = 114.3 mm. to 
139.7) ; tarsus .65 to .75 ( = 16.5 mm. to 19); bill from front the same and 
from gape .95 in. to 1.05 ( = 24.1 to 26.6 mm.). 
Throughout its range the variations in size seems to be much the same 
and I cannot find that northern birds are any larger than southern ones. 
Adult female. There is no rufous on the head or maroon on the upper- 
plumage, and the under tail-coverts are pale ochre with green centres and 
white shafts. 
Colours of soft parts. The same as in the male, the colour of the iris 
being, perhaps, not so brilliant as it is in very old males. 
Measurements. There is practically no difference between the male 
and female, and in the very large series in the British Museum the average 
wing-measurement of both males and females works out at about 6.95 in. 
= 176.5 mm.). 
Young male. The young male is like the female in general coloration, 
but still duller and rather darker. The quills are of a very dull tint of 
brown, and often a rather greenish-brown, whilst all the quills are very 
narrowly edged with yellow. 
The maroon on the upper-parts appears at the first autumn-moult as 
small patches on the wing, but is not acquired to its full extent together with 
the rufous crown until the subsequent spring-moult. Also, it is not until 
the first moult, or even after a still later one, that the birds grow to their 
full size. 
“The base of the bill and orbital skin cobalt blue; tip of bill pale blue ; 
irides brownish grey” (Scully). 
In very young birds the bill is almost white, and the orbital skin and cere 
are pale dull lavender. The irides, composed of one ring only, are a pale, 
rather watery-looking grey. 
The wing of the young male in the first year averages under rather than 
over 6 in. ( = 152.4 mm.), and the tail about 4.5 in. (= 114.3 mm.). 
The two specimens of Sphenocercus cantillans referred to by Mr. P. L. 
Dodsworth in a recent number of the Avicultwral Magazine, and by mvself 
in a subsequent number, are merely cage-birds which have lost their green 
pigment. When Mr. Dodsworth and I wrote about these birds we, neither 
of us, had the specimens to examine or a full library to refer te. 
G 
